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Author: Cynthia Low

Embrace Change, But Make Sure It’s for the Better

“Embrace change” is a useless platitude mouthed by managers or motivational speakers who have not thought through its full implications – or they are masochists who enjoy suffering. Changes that bring new opportunities or propel us forward are easy to embrace. But many changes look quite negative and are tough – if not impossible – to welcome. This list might include loss of a relationship, a loved one, health, job, money, and such.

We usually don’t choose the difficulties or negative changes that spring upon us. But we always choose how we respond.

Above or Below the Line: It’s a Critical Choice

For the past few years, I have been using a simple concept to discuss our choices in dealing with difficult problems. Surveys and feedback from my workshop or retreat participants continually point to the few minutes we spend on this basic model as the most powerful part of our time together. It may be basic and seem obvious, but many of us seem to need constant reminders and help because it is so easy to sink “below the line.”change1.png

There are grey areas slightly above and slightly below the line. This is “survivor” mode. When this is our response to a difficult change or problem, we’re sitting on the fence to see what might happen, or we are waiting for someone else to do something. There are times when waiting in survivor mode and not acting immediately is quite wise – as long as we are above the line.

Examples might be when we need more information and have to do some research, or to see whether a change is going to become a trend, or which way the new boss, government, or customer is going to go. The top of the graph – well above the line – is proactive “navigator” mode.

When we’re here, we’re trying to capitalize on the problem or change. Or, if capitalize is too extreme a word, we may be at least trying to figure out how we can make the best of – or work around – a bad situation. In this mind set we’re like the seasoned ship captain of old, he knew he could not control the wind and currents, but he could adjust the sails and steer the ship to make the best use of the winds and currents to move toward his destination.

Below the line is the dangerous territory of reactive “victim” mode. When we’re in this head space, we’re bitter, helpless, and feeling like others are out to get us or deliberately want to do it to us. In this “blame storming” mode we might point fingers at politicians, bosses or senior management, other departments, customers, competitors, and the like. Decades of research by University of Pennsylvania Psychology professor, Martin Seligman, shows that explaining events in our lives in this state of “learned helplessness” leads to lower performance, poorer health, and higher rates of depression.

What Pulls People Down

The feeling of helplessness shared by many people in their organization is a major contributor to low organizational morale. Here are some of the common causes:

Forces beyond our control. Mergers, acquisitions, changing governments, organizational power games, bureaucratic decisions, new technologies, competition, boom/bust cycles, security threats, dumb rules and forms, globalization, and such leave many people feeling like dispensable pawns.

Nobody ever tells us anything. In a world overflowing with information, most organizations have little open and transparent communication. So “us against them” rumors attempt to explain what’s going on and why.

We’re swamped. Many people’s e-mail inbox, voice mails, phone calls, and meeting schedules are overwhelming, as work encroaches on personal time and stress levels keep rising. This leaves many people feeling helpless and frustrated.

It’s popular. Cynics, doomsayers, and conspiracy theorists often get more attention – especially if they use disparaging humor, sneering personal putdowns, and mocking sarcasm.

Fear is more believable. In a Canadian poll probing irrational anxieties, pollster Allan Gregg asked, “If someone told you something was safe and someone else told you it was unsafe, which one would you believe?” He found that an astounding “68 percent would accept the message of doom and gloom” without questioning who was telling them and what they were talking about.

Society encourages victim thinking. People who make bad decisions to hold paper cups of scalding coffee between their legs while driving, drive drunk or carelessly, take drugs, or smoke cigarettes for 40 years are encouraged to “make somebody pay” for what they have done to themselves. Watch daytime TV talk shows for plenty of examples. Seeing positive possibilities in a calamity or making the best of a bad situation is much tougher than joining the crowd that’s given up and wants to play the poor-little-victim against some other group or external force.

It comes naturally.  Most people can quickly identify what’s wrong. It’s less instinctive to focus on what’s right and build upon that. It takes much more courage to correct a problem than to point and complain about the problem while waiting for somebody else to fix it.

Shift Your Perspective: Life isn’t Fair

Lots of unfair and unjust stuff happens to undeserving people. Whatever hits the fan is usually not evenly distributed in most workplaces. But it’s our choice whether to stand in it or not. Taking a navigator response to difficult issues means facing problems head-on by focusing on what’s within our direct control or what we can try to influence. We then need to figure out how to let go of, or at least not ‘awfulize’ and give more power to problems or issues that can’t be controlled or changed.

It’s recognizing that the best thing to do when it’s raining, is to…let it rain. Here are some ways to be less of a victim and more of a navigator through difficult career or workplace changes: Be aware of your mental state and limit downtime – the ever popular and rapidly growing “Pity City” – or even its suburb, “Frown Town,” can be a therapeutic place to visit occasionally. We all need to grieve or vent our frustration when faced with major losses or setbacks. But don’t join any co-workers wanting to take up residence in Pity City (one workshop participant claimed her department head was mayor!).

That leads to deepening cynicism, despair, and inaction. Pay attention to your own moods and watch for defeatist language like “they will never listen,” “what’s the point,” “we’ve tried that before,” or “why bother.” Keep the problem in perspective – don’t get so drawn into the issue that it’s all you can see. Step back and look at the bigger picture. What’s going right? What’s working in your favor? How could this change lead to something better? What are the possibilities?

Talk through the situation with a colleague, mentor, coach, or spouse. Describing and discussing the circumstances will force you to re-focus on what’s happening – as long as you don’t commiserate with people who love to find conspiracies everywhere and be a victim. Dispute your doomsday scenarios. When your head is buzzing with dread and worry, examine your beliefs about this issue or change.

Challenge your thinking through weighing objective evidence against your fearful outcome. List more desirable alternatives or what you would prefer to happen. “Decatastrophize” your long-term fears by recalling all the times things have worked out successfully in the past. Examine and question the usefulness of dwelling on your feared belief or concern. Harness the power of imagery and counterbalance fears of what all could go wrong by ensuring you have a clear picture of what outcome you want from this situation. What would a successful result look like? What would you be doing with the key players involved? How would you be feeling? What mind set have you adapted to rise above the difficulties and problems? What actions might this lead you toward? Step back to step ahead. The busier and more frantic the pace of work becomes, the more critical it is for you to carve out personal reflection and renewal time.

Avoid the busyness trap of adding ever higher quantities of work time to compensate for the diminishing quality of that time, as you slowly burn yourself out. Set limits on your workday or workweek. Pursue hobbies, personal interests, or family activities. Get away on periodic mini and longer vacations. Meditate or learn other stress reduction techniques. Monitor and carefully manage your creative energy.

Change your self-talk – catch yourself saying things like, “I am too old to change,” “That’s just the way I am,” “He makes me so mad,” and replace them with more accurate phrases like, “I choose not to change,” “I am comfortable with the way I am,” or “I make myself mad when he says/does…”, or make action plans to change. Help pull others up In dealing with changes and problems in your workplace; you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. Here are a few ways to help your colleagues or your team navigate more effectively through your endless challenges and issues: Speak up! Challenge, involve, or problem solve with those people who insist on picturing the worst outcomes and living in Pity City. By letting those comments go (or even worse,  joining in), you’re allowing the naysayers and cynics to set your team’s emotional tone and spread helplessness.

Refocus their thinking. Focus discussions on solutions and the future, not on the past or why nothing will work. You might need to point out that raising complaints without possible solutions can be unproductive and even harmful to the team. If team members or co-workers insist on remaining a victim, you might encourage or even help them to find another job.

Celebrate progress. Look for small wins and steps in the right direction that you and the team can build upon. You might periodically list what’s going well, or list your team’s accomplishments.

Find healthy ways to ventilate frustrations.  One team initiated a fine system whenever a member made a hopeless victim statement. It was a useful way to raise money for the United Way and called anyone to account for comments that brought the team down and poisoned their spirit. However, they soon found a need to vent frustration with the actions of another group or the challenging problems they were facing. So they added rituals like someone raising their hand at a meeting and asking for “permission to visit Pity City” for a limited time or scheduling a “grump dump” as part of their meeting agenda. It’s important to do a periodic “reality check” on how we deal with adversity and change.

One reality we can choose is to transform tough changes into positive results. Another possible reality is to wait for somebody else to take action or tell us how we should feel. Or our reality can be anger, bitterness, and helplessness. To choose our response is to choose our reality.


Jim Clemmer’s practical leadership books, keynote presentations, workshops, and team retreats have helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide improve personal, team, and organizational leadership. Visit his web site, http://jimclemmer.com/, for a huge selection of free practical resources including nearly 300 articles, dozens of video clips, team assessments, leadership newsletter, Improvement Points service, and popular leadership blog. Jim’s five international bestselling books include The VIP Strategy, Firing on All Cylinders, Pathways to Performance, Growing the Distance, and The Leader’s Digest. His latest book is Moose on the Table: A Novel Approach to Communications @ Work.

Six Attributes of Leadership

Does leadership have an effect on project success? Is there a difference between management and leadership? Can leadership be learned? The answer to all these questions is yes. In this article, I will look at six attributes of project leadership. This is certainly not a complete list, just a start. One that I believe can help project managers achieve project success.

1. Think Laterally

The first attribute, lateral thinking covers a variety of methods to get us out of the usual line of thought. It is this kind of thinking that cuts across the instilled and predetermined patterns we all too often employ when working on a problem. With this type of thinking we try different perceptions, different concepts, and different points of entry and consider multiple possibilities and approaches instead of a single approach. Many problems we face as business analysts and project managers require different perspectives to solve them successfully.

2. Empower the Team

Often, there is little or no recognition for people who spend time on elementary problems, it’s the big problems that receive all the attention, yet, big problems start as minor problems. All too often, because of leadership attitudes, employees develop the habit of ignoring problems until they explode, at which time they become big problems, then leaders want to go on record for being a problem solver. Empowered project teams correct this attitude. They focus on getting the job done while solving or preventing problems while the problems are still minor.

The ultimate paradox of project leadership power is that to be an effective leader, one must turn all team members into leaders. In this way, processes such as relationships and the issues of leadership and empowerment become important. Successful leaders are able to motivate, to energize and to empower others. When people are excited and empowered, it affects both their task initiation and task persistence. That is, empowered people get more involved, take on more difficult situations, and act more confidently. Empowered people expend more effort on a given task and are more persistent in their efforts.

3. Be Optimistic

 The third attribute is optimism. Leaders are optimistic. They think positively. Positive thinking is more than just avoiding negative emotions; there are actions and forethought involved. When negative events happen, excellent project leaders purposefully look for something positive. Instead of feeling that they can’t do something, they look at the problem as an opportunity for themselves, the project team, team development, bonding and growth.

4. Demand Better

On-going self-assessment and self-evaluation are critical for ensuring that your project is meeting its objectives and having a positive impact. Demanding better is actually a simple idea. All one has to do is ask, “What can we do even better?” Essentially that’s all there is to it. Asking the question over and over again focuses leaders on challenging themselves and team members. Further, it sets into motion an on-going self-evaluation and a focus on the process of achievement. In return, this focus on the process brings results.

5. Encourage Delegation

Delegation is one of the most important roles of your job; as a leader your job isn’t ‘to do, it is to gain or accomplish things through your team members. Your time should be spent on such things as visioning, motivating, controlling and goal setting, and not on trivial jobs such as fighting fires or responding to interruptions and correcting errors.

 Delegating relieves time-pressures on you. It provides your team members with an opportunity to expand their own skills in decision making and problem solving and encourages their creativity and initiative, while motivating them to become what they are capable of being.

It forces you to spend time with your team members, thus developing your interpersonal relationships. Your feedback and attention will encourage them on to greater things. It helps set performance standards based on member’s accomplishments or results, rather than purely on their activity. It helps to increase results by releasing you from some of your activities. You will be able to step back and look at the bigger picture instead of being caught up in the internal activities of the project. You will be able to think outwards for the better of the organization and not lose sight of the real goals.

6. Reside in the Future

To meet future challenges, leaders must reside in the future. Only then can they set a vision with reasonable goals and promote the process of developing effective strategies to achieve them. Considering the future enables leaders to think constructively about it, and do the things that contribute to achieving their visions. Proactive future oriented thinking can lead to greater project success. The future will happen, no matter what we do. If you want a successful future, you need to work at it.


Victor Teplitzky is a Principal Consultant at Advanced Management Services, Inc. (AMS), a full service management consultancy servicing an international client base. Victor is an Industrial Engineer and Behavioral Scientist (HRD/OD). Since 1974 he has provided training, consulting and assessment services to a wide variety of organizations in both the public and private sectors including; the National Guard, US Postal Service, National Institutes of Health, Sara Lee Corporation, DoE, DoD, GPO, USACE, FAA, Wal-Mart, The Hartford, ING and many more Fortune 100 and Global 2000 companies. Victor has designed and developed over 100 training workshops including both general programs for “off the shelf” presentations and workshops tailored to meet specific client needs in the areas of Project Management, Business Analysis, Professional Development and Business Development.

How to Complete a Software Development Project on Time, on Budget

Recent industry studies show that modern software projects on average spend 40 percent of their effort on rework, and as a result, over 80 percent of software projects overrun budgets, miss schedules and substantially reduce delivered functionality.

It’s a software development business analyst’s nightmare – that doesn’t seem to end.

The potential for error is further heightened because, unlike mechanical or civil engineering where the results of your efforts are tangible, the product of software development is largely conceptual.  When a manager is directing a complex project with several teams, the potential for mistakes or misdirection is especially magnified. Unlike a bridge being built from two sides of a river, significant discrepancies can creep in without an obvious reality check.

To avoid costly errors and delays, business analysts should consider seven key steps in tackling software development projects.

  1. To manage software projects effectively, business analysts need to have an explicit definition of the project’s scope. A clear demarcation of what is in and what is out, what is essential and what is would be nice to have, and what needs to be delivered at the end of the process. All major stakeholders and team members need to have a common understanding of the project goal. Ambiguities at this step can lead to major problems later that can only be resolved by a significant waste of time and money through rework.
  2. Develop concepts into clear requirements. Once stakeholders agree on a common goal, they need to refine their understanding into precise requirements, understandable to all. While it is common for requirements to evolve, starting from a specific requirements baseline provides a foundation to ensure the development process doesn’t drift. By ensuring that stakeholders are deeply involved in defining requirements, business analysts have a solid, universal understanding of the project’s path and scope.
  3. If the project is complex, use models that can be updated as the project evolves. Models represent the product in varying levels of detail and from various perspectives.  Sometimes, there is resistance to building models due to the effort required to maintain them, as new and different elements are incorporated. It is precisely because software development is so complicated that models are needed. With so many conceptual layers being tied together, it can be difficult to keep track of each and every element and their interrelationships. You wouldn’t consider building a bridge without a model. Why would you consider developing software, which is every bit as complicated, without one?
  4. Manage expectations through the project. As software development proceeds, stakeholders often suggest that more functionality be added to the project beyond its original intent. It’s necessary to rely on more than the legal contract to keep projects focused. As more people become involved in the project, regular get-togethers become even more important to ensure that all stakeholders stay aligned.  
  5. Keep the model up to date. Feedback loops are an essential part of most successful projects, and software development is no different. While it might seem time-consuming, keeping the model current provides a touchstone for all stakeholders as the project progresses. It helps maintain focus and exposes when any aspect of the development drifts from its original, or modified, intent. As much as possible, design the model so that it can be updated automatically.
  6. Decompose the model. The model should be designed in such a way that its constituent parts align with work tasks of the team.  In this way, the model parts can be delegated to individual teams to develop or maintain, and later reassembled as needed, to ensure overall integrity at regular milestones.  The process should be managed so that teams, including subcontractors, can come back to the model every so often for a reality check. By so doing, the business analyst keeps the potential for significant rework or outright failure at a minimum.
  7. The process should be built so that all aspects of the model, including those that have progressed, are pulled together regularly to ensure that everything still fits and that modules under development are still proceeding toward the ultimate goal.

But Won’t it Cost More?

Using a management structure that relies on a series of reality checks requires a project budget that allocates time and money for periodic review. The result, however, is that this marginal investment yields far more payback in terms of reduced rework.   An accurate and representative model is a catalyst for more valuable and more frequent feedback. Feedback loops are designed precisely to reduce risk and are found in nearly all engineering disciplines.

With software development projects spending on average 40 percent of their effort on rework, it is worthwhile to use an effective model to ensure your project achieves success.

Consider the alternative: A project that the client rejects, one that has to be reworked hastily, held together by shunts and duct tape. Not only are project funds wasted unnecessarily, but the delivered product’s quality suffers.   Status quo is the expensive path.


Tony Higgins is Vice-President of products at Blueprint Systems. He can be reached at [email protected].

Designing Great Leadership Development Workshops

Ten Core Design Principles

Leadership development workshops are very expensive. And I’m not just referring to the cost of facilities, materials, trainers, and bagels. When a company takes 20 or so managers out of the organization for several days, it is making a significant investment in their development. Those of us who are the architects of these workshops need to ask ourselves the question: Have we designed a workshop that is worthy of this investment? We at Bluepoint have been delivering leadership workshops for over twenty years and have learned that there are 10 core design principles that lead to a great learning experience. I would like to share these with you.

1) Research-based Content

A colleague of ours once mused that many leadership workshops appear to have been created by two guys in a bar in Milwaukee and recorded on the back of a beer coaster. The truth is that anyone can cobble together some interesting exercises and experiences, but to what end? We know the outcomes of great organization leadership…alignment, engagement, retention, productivity, teamwork, agility, to name a few. There is little mystery here. What many designers ignore is all the research that tells us what specific leadership behaviors, practices and approaches will create these outcomes. A good leadership workshop is grounded in this research and, as such, will equip participants with the capability to make an immediate, positive impact on their organizations.

2) Engagement

The frenzied pace that most managers face today has turned the otherwise calm and thoughtful participant into a skittish, distracted bystander, infected by a self-imposed form of ADD with one eye on his or her Blackberry and the other eye on the door. It’s not that these managers are disinterested in their professional development; they are simply products of today’s frenetic organizations. To get their attention, they must be entertained. While describing a good leadership workshop as entertaining may sound like a call to design a boondoggle, unless the workshop can successfully compete with the myriad of distractions facing today’s manager, we will simply be hosting adult day-care. The famous communications guru, Marshall McLuhan, made the connection even more direct with this statement: “It’s misleading to suppose there’s any basic difference between education and entertainment.” Videos, stories, games, debates, physical experiences and colorful materials all play an important role in participant engagement.

3) Story-telling

Every participant comes to the workshop with their own unique leadership story that has grown out of their experiences, beliefs, fears, biases and aspirations. A great workshop challenges the participant to create a bigger story for him or herself and the people that they lead. This can only happen when the participant has the opportunity to tell his or her current story and have it honored in the classroom. Once this happens, a new story can be crafted. The greater the story, the greater the development.

4) Feedback

No workshop ingredient is more potent than feedback. Whether it be multi-rater assessments or direct one-on-one communication, feedback is a powerful stimulus for personal change. And that’s what leadership development really is…personal change. What limits the use of feedback in leadership workshops? I believe it is largely our own arrogance. Too often we feel that the participant cannot handle the feedback. They are too fragile. They will somehow be irreparably damaged by our words or those of fellow participants. Or it may be our own insecurities. We will lose control of the workshop. Emotions will run rampant. We will not be able to handle the resulting carnage. Remember, the workshop is not about you; it’s about the participant. Be bold in creating a feedback-rich environment. The participants will thank you for the gift, maybe not now, but someday.

5) Appreciation

The problem with many leadership development workshops is that there is an underlying assumption that the ideal leader needs to develop a predetermined set of corporate competencies while becoming some fantastic amalgamation of Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Jack Welch. Let’s leave that idea to the boys at the bar in Milwaukee. We do not discard these elements entirely from the design process. Corporate culture and strategy rightly have a bearing on workshop design, and there is also much we can learn from the great leaders of the past. However, the best workshops are based on the assumption that all participants come uniquely gifted for the challenge of leadership, and the role of the workshop is to help them identify and cultivate these gifts. It is not our job to help them become the next Steve Jobs, but rather someone much more potent…the best leadership version of themselves. A workshop that is designed to help the participants accelerate the development of their natural strengths is much more potent than one designed to fix the participant or change him or her into the model corporate leader.

6) Intense Experiences

I have asked thousands of workshop participants to reflect on the following five items and select the one that had the most influence on their development as a leader.

(i) Reading and Research
(ii) Performance Appraisals
(iii) Coaching and Mentoring
(iv) Challenging Experiences
(v) Formal Training

Challenging Experiences” was selected by over 90 % of the respondents. (It’s interesting to note that Performance Appraisals always comes in dead last, but that’s a topic for another day.) Even though most designers are keenly aware of these findings, there is a great temptation to fill the workshop agenda with content that is largely extraneous such as succession planning models, managerial competencies, and corporate values. While the intention to provide material that can be applied back on the job is laudable, this information is largely ignored. People can read. Give them the content beforehand. Use the workshop as a learning laboratory where the participants are confronted with real leadership situations. Challenge them to lead at higher levels. Create a curriculum that exposes participants to intense experiences, and allow them to experiment with new behaviors and approaches. This will accelerate their learning and development. (By the way, most savvy managers have read all the corporate tenets and many of the important books on leadership anyway.)

7) Peer Coaching

In my ongoing survey, Coaching and Mentoring always comes in second. One-on-one learning processes are very powerful because, for a period of time, it really is all about me. Because coaching requires no content knowledge, any participant can coach another with a little guidance. For those of us who make our living standing in the front of a classroom trying to be insightful, witty and sage-like, it is difficult to accept the fact that the average peer coaching session is much more effective than our most brilliant lecture. Whenever possible, get your body and ego out of the way and let the participants talk to each other.

8) Self-awareness

It has been said that leadership development is an inside-out game. I like the way Manfred Kets De Vries puts it: “Healthy leaders are passionate…They are very talented in self-observation and self-analysis; the best leaders are highly motivated to spend time in self-reflection.” (Harvard Business Review, January, 2003) The leadership development workshop provides the perfect opportunity for the leader to step out of his or her chaotic schedule, put it in neutral, and take a long, fresh look inward. After all, the only thing participants can work on to improve their leadership is themselves. Put sufficient white space into the workshop design so the participant can personalize the learning. Most managers cannot remember the last time they took 15 minutes in complete silence to contemplate their own leadership journey. Give them the 15 minutes.

9) Performance Breakthroughs

The most frequently voiced dissatisfaction with leadership workshops is the lack of application on the job. It’s not because workshop participants do not want to change; it’s just that real change is so difficult. The pressures of the job, lack of support from their manager, no time…the list goes on. Significant improvement in leadership effectiveness rarely occurs in one big leap. We don’t see the freshly-trained leader walking through the hallways wearing saffron-colored robes, musing about shared community values and throwing rose petals on others (metaphorically speaking, that is). Change occurs incrementally and is fueled by short-term successes – a process that needs to start in the classroom. Bar the classroom door and let no one leave until they have demonstrated at least ten performance breakthroughs (again, metaphorically speaking…I think). Real change starts in the workshop, not back in the office. Start the habit of experimentation and incremental change in the workshop.

10) Learning Accountability

I kick-off many of my leadership coaching assignments with the eternally irritating question: “So, Sally, if nothing changes in your performance what is likely to happen?” Besides the mischievous delight I take in tormenting my clients, I have learned that I can serve them best by insisting that they take full responsibility for their actions, decisions, learning and future. Unless they take personal accountability for their development, there will always be someone else to blame…their board, their staff, their customer, their mother. So too with a leadership workshop. The question that needs to be oft asked at the workshop is “So, George, what have you learned about yourself and what are you going to do about it?

Our clients often report that the two or three days spent in our leadership development workshops were some of the most important days of their careers. Is this because we have great facilitators? Most certainly. A great facilitator can turn almost any curriculum into an important learning experience. But it is also because we try to adhere to the above design principles which, in essence, tell us that the workshop is not about us…it’s about the participant.


Gregg Thompson is a principle of Bluepoint Leadership Development (Canada) and the author of Unleashed! Expecting Greatness and Other Secrets of Coaching for Exceptional Performance. He can be reached at [email protected] or 604-313-5357.

Nearly Painless UML

UML (Uniform Modeling Language) is a significant technical advance in the ability to formally specify, visualize and document existing and envisioned improvements to business processes and systems.   UML was established by the collaborative efforts of three software engineering leaders each of whom had his own formalized methodology:  Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh, and Ivar Jacobson.

They were able to create a common set of formalized concepts, diagramming conventions and methods to foster clear and efficient communications that are effective for both traditional and the modern needs for object-oriented programs, database systems, and web-based applications.  UML has since evolved into an industry standard for software engineering best practices that is supported by tools such as Microsoft Visio and others. 

While UML concepts have had much potential for improved communication of existing processes and business requirements with business management and staff, their potential is often difficult to realize in implementation.

Conventional wisdom suggests a multi-day UML class to train the key business users in UML similar to that done successfully for technical staffs.   However, motivating and training already busy executives, business management and staff in a “cram UML course” often is overwhelming and ineffective plus it can easily instill a pervasive negative attitude toward UML and the requirements definition processes due to its perceived complexity and actual rigor.

The “Painless” UML Alternative
Business Analysts that have attained a good understanding and command of UML can identify current business processes and issues as well as communicate a vision for business improvements using UML.   By using some extra imagination and ingenuity they can create effective diagrams, charts, ROI analysis and functional specifications to communicate meaningful business concepts in UML that can be easily understood by business management, functional-area staff and technical staff without mentioning UML.  

These specifications and presentations can often be based on UML concepts, diagrams and methods without subjecting the business community to the rigors and “Pain” of formal UML training.    The primary goal of the Business Analyst and their Business Clients is to establish effective communication – the particulars of what type of arrow is used in which diagram is only important when all are trained to use the same exact conventions or when communicating with UML-Trained and practicing technical staff.

In many organizations, UML is often not of interest and not a priority for executives, managers and non-technical staffs – nor must it be.   In the author’s experience, effective UML and non-UML diagrams can be used to communicate efficiently to subtly begin introducing advanced UML concepts such as object-oriented inheritance, use-cases, functional swim-lanes and business process flows as ways to better understand and communicate business concepts.   In this way, such advanced concepts are efficiently introduced and learned gradually in a more natural way, as discussed below.

In many cases the innovative Business Analyst can consolidate a big picture of how the business is supposed to work, actually works or should work better into a single picture that is “worth a thousand words” to clarify, communicate and help make the right business and/or technical decisions (as illustrated in the example below).

painless1.png

The concepts communicated in high-level diagrams, such as shown above, can be further decomposed into functional components and detailed specifications that are easily painless2.pngunderstood by technical and non-technical staff alike.   Because staff members are already familiar with their business, they can now better see the complete picture and readily grasp new and advanced concepts such as inheritance (IS-A Relations) in the diagrams.

The staffing for the warehouse is clearly depicted in the object-oriented UML inheritance diagram (on the right) that shows the different roles assumed by warehouse workers. 

Likewise, the same approach can be applied to define other types of objects such as products or equipment to clearly specify the general types and subtypes.

The functional vision for a proposed system can be introduced at a high level (as shown below) and then subsequently shown in more detail as the functional design approach is further detailed.

painless3.png 

The functional design for a system as it affects different departments and functional organizations as well as the primary input and output information sources are shown in the example below,

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The three separate vertical areas are called “Swimlanes” in UML.  The diagram above clearly shows the functionality and high-level process flow among: Sales Automation, Production Management and Dispatch & Routing whether you know UML or not.

As business processes are defined at additional levels of detail, “Use Cases” are a very effective way to identify business objects and the business operations that must be supported in the application for those objects as shown in the example below.

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Use Case diagrams provide additional detail by showing which operations may be performed by each type of worker that was defined in the prior inheritance diagram. 

Use Case diagrams also employ inheritance relationships that are easy to understand by both technical and non-technical staff. 

The clarity provided by these diagrams and methods allow functional users to catch omissions and mistakes such as:  allowing the packing and shipping tasks, but forgetting that you must also provide tasks to accept and process returns as a part of project reviews and discussions.  

Use Case diagrams are especially important to object-oriented software development projects since they typically become a guide as to how the objects and programs are designed and structured.

As the business analyst continues to understand the new manual and automated processes that will be integrated, a new functional organization for the many different warehouses begins to emerge as a diagram that aids in efficient discussion, review and innovation by the functional, technical and management staff involved (as shown in the diagram below).

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These examples are just a few ways a business analyst’s skill at understanding and creating effective pictures of your current process and the vision for your improved manual and automated business processes can be evolved methodically as a progressive series of steps.

Clear and effective communication of business facts and needs serves to get both technical and non-technical staff on the same page as well as leads to better project results. 

In Summary
This “Painless UML” case study has supplied examples as to how UML and even sophisticated concepts can be gradually introduced and discussed with business staff in a natural way by presenting their own business requirements and processes in a understandable format and making the extra effort to ensure that staff comprehends it.

The full UML (Unified Modeling Language) is quite extensive and many of its features, diagrams and nuances are primarily of concern to the technical staff – “Under the Hood”, so to speak, in the mechanic’s and engineer’s world.   Similarly, you only need to understand a car’s controls to drive it just as only a portion of the UML is needed for effective Business Analyst to Business Staff communication in the requirements definition and review processes.

The Business Analyst is the key to effective application of “Nearly Painless UML” for excellence in specifications for the technical community plus keeping the business community focus on effectiveness in the communication, review and gathering of business requirements information without mention of UML.


Byron Claghorn is Director of Corporate Development for Point North Consulting.  In this role he is able to leverage his broad experience to both develop and support the various Point North Consulting practices and our service offerings.  He has had a long and varied computer science, engineering R&D and consulting career with Burroughs and Unisys Corporation, Vice President of Engineering and Manufacturing for Microcard Technologies and as an Air Force data-automation officer. Much of his career has been focused upon the development of software products and application development tools, client-specific integration of document imaging technology with existing computerized applications, databases and host systems. Byron can be reached at [email protected] or 407-514-2651